Six customers who need a tank monitor: #5 propane refill station

The Six Customers Who Need A Tank Monitor

  1. Propane Pool Heater
  2. Propane Greenhouse Heater
  3. Propane Generator
  4. Second Home Owners
  5. Propane Refill Station
  6. Propane Restaurants

For the next in our series of difficult to track propane customers, we’re going to look at a propane refill station.  In case you missed it our first four posts highlighted pool heaters, greenhouses, generators, and second-homes.  Our top six list is a result of analyzing the thousands of connected tanks we monitor across 46 states and Canada.

A propane refill station displays variable, high, and critical consumption characteristics that make these tanks perfect candidates for a tank monitor.  Let’s unpack each of these characteristics.  First, these locations can swing wildly as demand varies from BBQ cylinders, RV tanks, forklifts, food trucks and more.  Second, a run-out is directly tied to lost sales for your propane refill station customer, so one run-out can lead to a lost customer.  This variable and critical use becomes even more risky because of a refill station’s large consumption rate.  Customers like the one highlighted below can sell through a 1,000 gallon tank every week often requiring 50+ deliveries per year to avoid run outs.

From the usage below, we can see exactly why this all adds up to both a challenge and an opportunity for suppliers.  Without degree day dependent usage the supplier below opts to set this propane refill station on a scheduled weekly delivery.  This delivery strategy can suffice for most drops but fails to capture the peak usage events that lead to a run-out – as indicated on Sept 3rd below.  With live information about your propane refill station tank level, you can solve this challenge by making daily and even hourly decisions that help avoid a run-out.
While challenging, a propane refill station also presents an opportunity.  Because of the large usage even the slightest increase in fill % can equate to a significant reduction in required stops.  Filling the tank below at 20% would save ~15 deliveries over a year and at $50/stop would equate to saving $750/year.

Tank Level for Propane Refill Station

Propane Refill Station


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